July 29, 2005—A study released in July shows that time wasting at work is pervasive and costs employers billions of dollars a year. America Online (AOL) and Salary.com hosted an online survey in which 10,044 respondents admitted to wasting, on average, 2.09 hours per day.
Polling corporate human resources professionals and users of AOL and Salary.com Salary Wizard, the researchers asked respondents to indicate how much time they wasted per day in a five 8-hour-day workweek. Lunch and scheduled break-time were not counted in the survey.
Salary.com calculated that employers spend $759 billion per year on salaries for which real work was expected, but not actually performed.
Personal Internet use was found to be the biggest distraction, with 44.7 percent of employees citing the Internet as the biggest draw. Socializing with co-workers was next, at 23.4 percent. Personal business, daydreaming, errands and personal phone calls made up the rest. The more candid respondents admitted to bringing Game Boys or needlework to the office, others to running races up the staircase with co-workers.
For more information, go to Salary.com.
